Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.

I have written about economics and blogs a few times and in the past few weeks there have been a number of other articles and blog posts about the econoblogosphere that I want to share the links for:

Early in July we learned that celebrity economists now feature prominently on the list of influential business thinkers compiled by the Wall Street Journal.

Last week Raghuram Rajan questioned what he called the paranoid style in Economics. He has a good bit there (and goes on to discuss Krugman’s blogs about the Reinhart & Rogoff story):

… for economists who actively engage the public, it is hard to influence hearts and minds by qualifying one’s analysis and hedging one’s prescriptions. Better to assert one’s knowledge unequivocally, especially if past academic honors certify one’s claims of expertise. This is not an entirely bad approach if it results in sharper public debate. The dark side of such certitude, however, is the way it influences how these economists engage contrary opinions.

The South African econoblogosphere is still small, but if you are looking for something to read, have a look at our blogroll!